Improvement in wash-boards



J. HQLAPH'AM. WASH-BOARD.

Patented July 17.. 1 877.

eases.

PETERS. PHOTO-WHOGRAFHER, WASHINGTON D C.

invention is as follows:

JOSEPELH. LAPHAM, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN WASH-BOARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1593.095. dated July 17, 1877; application filed May 3, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH H. LAPHAM, of Cleveland, in the county of Uuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented new and useful Improvements in Wash-Boards, of which the following is a description, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which Figure l is a view-of the face of the board. Fig. 2 is a vertical section.

Like letters of reference refer to like parts in the several views. v

The nature of this invention relates to a wash-board of the class having a metal rubbing-surface and the invention consists in giving to the metal surface of the board a peculiar corrugated and grooved character, in combination with the large corrugations or undulations of the ordinary wash-boards of this class.

A more full and complete description of the The wash-board referred to is provided with a wooden frame, A, of which B is the back, to which the metal rubbing-surface or zinc plate is secured. Said plate is provided with large corrugations D, the smooth surfaces of which are roughened by forming thereon, at regular or at irregular distances, and longitudinally therewith, grooves or narrow depressions E, both along the sides thereof and along the crest or line of the top, as seen in Fig. 2.

Said grooves or depressions, as will be seen in the drawings, are not continued in uninterrupted lines along the main corrugations of the board, but are terminated at certain distances by short blank spaces, thereby making a series of grooves or depressions across the plate in the top and sides of the main corrugations, and parallel therewith, forming an alternating arrangement of short plain spaces a and grooves or depressions D.

It will be observed that the alternating series of grooves and plain spaces in one line are so arranged in respect to the alternating grooves and plain spaces in the next line that the spaces in the one alternate with the grooves in the others on either sidethat is to say, the plain spaces in one line are opposite the grooves or depressions in the next lines.

This roughening of the surface of the main corrugations by means of grooves parallel therewith serves to retain upon the rubbing-surface ot' the board the suds and water, so that the clothes, while being rubbed thereon, continue longer wet, as the water cannot run off so freely as from a smoother surface; hence the rubbing will be more effective and less severeto the hands.

The grooves E on the opposite side of the zinc plate present projections corresponding to the depressions of said grooves, which projections ofl'er a rubbing-surface with the corrugations. However, side, both of which characterize my invention.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A wash-board provided with a metallic'rubhing-surface composed of the main corrugations D, the latter having a series of small grooves, E, alternating with raised spaces a, both parallel with the main corrugations D, substantially as herein described.

JOSEPH H. LABHAM.

I prefer the grooved 

